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Every summer the movie-going public gets hit with the latest in CGI-filled special effects flicks. We get comic-based superheroes, action adventures, sequels, prequels and hopefully, a good sex romp gets thrown into the mix too. So in the spirit of the season, we thought we'd put together a timeline or brief history of sex on the silver screen.

1896

The Kiss marks the first time a couple kisses on celluloid. The 20-second kiss (also the length of the entire movie, by the way) was done with Thomas Edison standing behind the camera. It brought about the first cries for film censorship from the Catholic Church due to its supposedly shameful depiction of lip-locking.

1897

It took two years after the very first public screening of a film for a nude scene to show up. Leave it to the French to get the ball rolling with a very short film called Après Le Bal. Around this time stag party films start getting made. They are never released to theaters for the general public, but do find their way to some gentlemen's clubs.

1911

Pennsylvania becomes the first state to pass a film censorship law.

1915

The Yanks learn about nudity when the first American film with a nude scene, Inspiration, starring Audrey Munson, is released.

1926

Hollywood is a numbers game. The movie Don Juan, starring John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Estelle Taylor records a new high in number of kisses in a movie, hitting the mark at 127.

1926

A good year for sexy movies. Hollywood's first filmed French kiss shows up in Flesh and the Devil between real-life lovers Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. This film also boasts the first kiss to take place with two people in a horizontal position in American film.

1933

Hedy Lamarr makes a splash in the Czechoslovakian erotic drama, Ecstasy. Unfortunately, Americans had to go all the way to Czechoslovakia to see it as the film was banned in the States for obscenity. It is thought to be the first non-pornographic film where the act of sex was shown. Throw in a simulated orgasm and you have the first time in history that a film is banned by U.S. Customs.

1934

Due to pressure from the Catholic Church's League of Decency, the Motion Picture Production Code is enacted and strictly enforced, making all movies subject to censorship. Pretty much everything fun was banned in American films, including "suggestive dance."

1944

Hollywood's reaction to the Motion Picture Production Code is to suggest sex rather than to show it, perhaps most famously with Lauren Bacall's steamy line, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together -- and blow," in To Have and Have Not.

1959

As censorship weakens, the door is opened for the likes of Russ Meyer, whose open love for the well endowed female in all kinds of sexual situations is legendary. His movie, The Immoral Mr. Teas, is considered by many to be the first pornographic feature film.

1963

Jayne Mansfield is the first legitimate Hollywood star to do a nude scene which unfurls in the sex-romp, Promises! Promises!

1966

The British-Italian co-production, Blow-up, is released in the States and allows male American movie-goers to see what women's pubic hair looks like for the first time. If you rent it, don't blink.

1969

The infamous homo-erotically charged nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in Women in Love is the first scene showing penises in a mainstream movie.

1972

Hard-core porn makes big bucks with Deep Throat, one of the biggest money-makers in movie history. Actual numbers are murky though. As Roger Ebert pointed out, many theaters that screened the film were mob-connected enterprises so they probably "inflated box office receipts as a way of laundering income from drugs and prostitution" and such.

1972

Last Tango in Paris is released with an X-rating. Both lead actor Marlon Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci received Oscar nominations. We never look at a stick of butter in the same way again.

1980

What do you get when you add Sir John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, Gore Vidal and Penthouse Magazine publisher, Bob Guccione? The answer: Caligula. The outcry was harsh due to scenes of incest, bestiality and penis dismemberment, but honestly the real sin was wasting the talents of such a fine ensemble of actors on this piece of crap movie.

1986

9½ Weeks is a major commercial success despite some pretty bad reviews. It stars Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in a series of slightly sado-masochistic scenes.

1990

The erotic and artful film Henry & June, based on the affair between Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin is the first movie to be given the new NC-17 rating. It was advertised as "a true adventure more erotic than any fantasy."

1992

Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs in Basic Instinct. This new twist on the femme fatale leaves movie-goers gasping and forces most men to get rid of those fancy ice picks they always leave lying around in the bedroom.

1995

Teen and pre-teen sexuality is explored (some would say exploited) in Larry Clark's voyeuristic Kids. Although the movie functions as a cautionary tale, pundits accused the film of stepping dangerously close to child-porn territory. It also features a young Chloë Sevigny as an HIV-positive teen.

1996

Bound steams up screens. While certainly not the first movie to take on lesbianism, the chemistry between leads Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly gave lesbians mainstream cache.

2002

James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal give great performances in Secretary, a film depicting a sadist/masochist relationship. Rather than approaching S&M as abhorrent behavior, Secretary explores it without judgment.

2006

John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus is shown at both the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. It goes down in history as the widest release of any film showing unsimulated sex.